According
to Homer and Hesiod, Hermes is the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia (Homeric
Hymn to Hermes, 1 & Theogony 938).It makes sense that the Olympian associated with trickster
characteristics is the one whose mother is a nymph, since nymphs are also
associated with deception and other characteristics of trickery.

Hermes begins his deceptive career at an
early age.According to the Homeric
Hymn to Hermes, when he is only a day old, he steals the cattle of Apollo,
the Far-Shooter, and thus Far-Seeing.He is able to fool Apollo because of his ability to alter the appearance
of things.Hermes has the cattle walk
backwards and also places tree branches on the soles of his feet to disguise
his footprints.The deception works and
Apollo only learns the truth when a farmer tells him what he saw.It is interesting that Apollo, the
soothsayer, must have a mortal interpret the clues for him.This scene shows that although Apollo is an
intelligent god, it is not the type of intelligence that can outwit Hermes’
cunning.Apollo is associated with
oracular abilities, yet this power is limited to clear-cut facts, whileHermes is able to outsmart Apollo due to his
cunning mind.Hermes takes the cattle
to the river Alpheios, where he sacrifices two of the cows to the Olympians and
divided the meat into twelve equal portions, including himself in their number.

Homer
notes that, “Hermes was the first to give us fire from fire-sticks”
(111).It is possible that Homer
refers to the ability of Hermes to create fire by rubbing two sticks
together.This is an interesting
passage because Prometheus is generally attributed with giving fire to man
first.According to Hesiod,
Prometheus stole the fire of the gods and hid it ‘in the hollow of a fennel
stalk’ to give to man (Works and Days 52).

Prometheus
merely gave the flame without the knowledge of how to rekindle it.Thus Hermes’ ingenuity of rubbing two sticks
together would allow man to create fire indefinitely.This argument would show Hermes as the cleverer of the two for
Prometheus stole fire while Hermes created it.

After the sacrifice, Hermes returns to his
mother’s home in Kyllene.There he
disguises himself as mist and slips through the keyhole so he can state later
that he had not stepped over the threshold that day.When Apollo confronts him, Hermes lies to protect himself, giving
cunning arguments for why he would be unable to have stolen cattle.Hermes states, “Surely I neither stole the
cows-whatever cows are- nor saw another man do it” (Homeric Hymn to Hermes
310-311).When Apollo takes Hermes to
Zeus to judge the conflict, Hermes does not stop his deceitfulness.Hermes states, “Father Zeus, I, indeed,
shall speak the truth to you, for I am all for the truth and know not how to
lie”(368-369).Hermes gives proof of his innocence by
stating, “I was born but yesterday” (376).Apollo is angry but Hermes is able to charm him because of his arguments
and cunning.Apollo is further
impressed with Hermes when he hears the instrument Hermes has created from a
tortoise shell, the lyre.Hermes gives
Apollo the lyre in exchange for a share of his prophetic abilities.The “three sisters” Apollo refers to are
bees and thus Hermes is given the ability to interpret their thoughts
(552).It is interesting that Hermes is
connected to bees in such a way.The
Greek word, aiolos refers to “all creatures whose wriggling and moving
mass is never still” and is thus used in describing wasps and bees (Detienne
18).With the help of Apollo, Hermes is
now able to interpret bees and his quickness and sharpness is demonstrated in
the ability of understanding an insect that ‘is never still’.

As the messenger of the gods, Hermes
is an expert on liminality.During
the Heroic Age, he is associated with the underworld as the guide of souls
and the connection between gods and men.This messenger status allows him to frequently cross boundaries.In the Iliad, it is Hermes who
escorts King Priam between enemy camps to retrieve his son Hector’s
body.Hermes’ presence allows Priam
to enter the enemy camp and retrieve his son safely.

This
role of boundary-crosser, allowed Hermes to become associated with crossroads
because of their distinction as a meeting place between different towns and
cultures.Often markets would develop
at these crossroads and Hermes quickly added commerce to his list of
duties.Hermes became the patron of
merchants, overseeing the exchange between opposing forces, consumer and
vendor.